The Great Hello Kitty Debate

I can't recall if I ever really hated the song. I just remember that after hearing it for the first time I was pretty shocked.

Anyway, "Hello Kitty" is definitely one of Avril's songs that I rather dislike, but that's mostly because of its genre. EDM? Not with me. Not at all. Urgh!

But eventually, "Hello Kitty" does have a few good things about it: I like the electric guitars in the verses; they kinda remind me of the instrumental of "Candy". And I actually think the lyrics are quite funny, not bad or boring. I mean, she uses a rhyme scheme of AABCCB in the verses, and the lyrics are not repetitive either (except for this "kawaii" of course). I believe if it wasn't for the chorus and the bridge, I might even like this song. But the chorus and bridge just ruin it all. I can't even decide which of these is worse. I guess it's because in these two sections the song turns into pure EDM, which is, as I stated before, simply not at all my taste.

There's another good thing I have to add, though: I like how Avril sings a few words so squeakily, e.g. the "someone" in "someone chuck a cupcake at me". I've never heard any other singer produce such noises before; it's pretty astounding.

As for the music video: I like the colours. That's about it. The rest is so cringeworthy. Avril keeps making this duck face, which - sorry, Avril - makes her look so stupid. And what with the waving in the black and white shots? And the sushi scene? I know the video is simply supposed to be fun, but I really can't laugh about that video. It's ridiculous. After it was released, I almost felt a bit ashamed of calling myself a fan. Sometimes when I watch the video, I also get the feeling that Avril's happiness in it isn't entirely true. As though she herself had realized that the whole thing was rather ridiculous after all...

But despite all that, the video doesn't strike me as racist. It's very stereotypical, of course, but as Avril already tweeted back then: why would she film a video in Japan for her Japanese fans if she was racist? If she had done the same here in Germany, using the stereotypes of everyone wearing lederhosen and drinking beer, I would have laughed too, even though it's completely rubbish. But maybe that's just me and my weird sense of humor .

The live performance from Indonesia really is pretty bad. Not that she sounds bad, she just doesn't seem into it at all. But maybe she hardly moves because she's afraid of the bow getting loose or of ruining her skirt??

Well, to sum it all up: I dislike "Hello Kitty" because of the EDM parts. If it wasn't for those I might like it. But the song still has something that makes it stand out. So, it's not my most disliked song by Avril. There are a few songs that I like even less. The music video however is definitely her worst.

Just wanted to say that I appreciate the amount of sensitivity you're giving to this issue. Even though I don't personally think the video is racist, I see many Avril fans pre-emptively dismissing the issue almost as a defense mechanism. Then they go way too far in the other direction by mocking the concept of cultural appropriation as if it's not a problem that exists. Not everyone does this obviously, but it kind of bothers me whenever I see it happening.

Also, happy birthday!

Neil you are alive???!?..we miss you on a dicsord, come back, come back...

I really like the journey of enlightenment of consciousness of Bootylicious Batch. Is great to reach such enlightenment.

Not a big fan of the song but I sometimes like to enable a private session in Spotify and listen to it a few times.

actually i have never watched the video.
when i bought CD i made it to 40 seconds of this track and then skipped to the next track and have never listened to album version again.
i don't skip the version

Me when hello kitty starts playing: